The People's Joker Is A Woman of Her Word

by Nick Taylor

That’s right folks: It’s time. The review you’ve all been waiting for. It’s me, talking about The People’s Joker, one of the year’s best films. You’ve had over a week now to see this magnificence in your own homes, to treasure its weird earnestness barely submerged amidst so much scuzzy kitsch, to marvel at such ingenuity despite palpably limited assets, to bemoan the lack of international release or festival screenings even though this would kill at a queer film festival. My two trips to see this in a packed theater, flanked on all sides by queers who were so ready for the madness Vera Drew promised them, rank among the best crowd experiences I’ve ever had, and it’s a genuine bummer more people won’t get to experience The People’s Joker in that environment.

It’s not the release this film deserves, but being even this accessible to a wide audience is what it needs. For those wondering what The People’s Joker is, or need an extra push to check it out, follow me below the cut and learn all about it . . . . 

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The Matrix @25: Queering the Canon

by Cláudio Alves

Happy Easter! Happy Trans Day of Visibility!! Happy 25th anniversary to The Matrix!!! As luck would have it, these three occasions coincided this year, making for a lovely little cinematic celebration. After all, The Matrix is probably the most famous work by trans filmmakers – the Wachowski sisters – and Neo's journey can be seen as an allegory of gender identity. It was somewhat devised as such by its closeted auteurs who've reclaimed their work's intrinsic queerness after it became a powerful reference for the MRA movement and the alt-right. Like many misappropriated movies, The Matrix doesn't deserve its fans. Or, perhaps more accurately, a good portion of its fandom doesn't deserve The Matrix in all its glory.

But Neo isn't just a queer icon. He's also something of a Jesus figure, a Messiah for our cyber-noir future, bedecked in fetish fashions, armed with kung fu moves and impossible firepower. And like Christ, he is risen…

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Queering the Oscars: Chris Sarandon in "Dog Day Afternoon"

For Pride Month Team Experience is looking at queer & queer-adjacent moments in Oscar history.

by Nick Taylor

“I wish I had an abusive boyfriend who was willing to rob a bank to pay for my sex change operation.” sighed my friend Jude after we finished watching Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Pride is always an ideal excuse to make all my cool queer friends watch cool queer films (I do this all the time, mind you), and our Queering the Oscars series has created the perfect opportunity to revisit old favorites with good friends.

In the context of queer cinema, Dog Day Afternoon is a fantastic surprise to put in front of a crowd, since it doesn’t announce itself as such from the outset...

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